Hello 30 Days Wild

I saw the 30 Days Wild hashtag on Instagram last June and thought ‘that looks fun’, and I’ve actually remembered to start on the 1st June this year which is a small miracle.

The 30 Days Wild challenge run by the Wildlife Trusts is all about making room in your life for wildlife and nature every day in June.

I think we already have a lot of contact with nature, but there’s always room for more so I’m interested to see how we do, especially how well we can get F. engaged with different things. Even though she isn’t two yet, she is already so enamoured of wildlife and natural spaces. It will also be good for me, as I’m very aware that with the slightly hectic pace of our lives I have taken a lot less time to visit a nature reserve or just observe wildlife and not be distracted by the smart phone to do list.

There is so much evidence emerging that contact with nature is a really important part of wellbeing and mental health. Because of this I very much see connecting F. with wildlife and the wider environment as a crucial part of her childhood her. In the same way as I try and make sure she tries a variety of food, reads books, learns new words and runs around a lot, introducing her to nature is an essential part of hopefully raising her as a healthy and happy person. Of course it’s also great fun too!

I’m hoping to blog during June about our challenge, but we’re on holiday for some of it so there may be pauses. I’m sure I’ll still be on Instagram though. What are your favourite ways of sharing a love of nature and the wild with toddlers?

A little life lately catch up

This is rather epic as I haven’t written a general chatty post for ages. I’m hoping to return to my monthly updates as I love having a record of what’s going on, this is basically a three month version of my usual end of the month catch-up. My camera roll shows that we’ve gone from snowdrops in February to bluebells at the end of April, and we’ve been very busy in between too.

I didn’t post a February update deliberately. It was a quiet month, as well as a short one. For Will, F and me there was a lot of home pottering and local days out. However it was a very bleak month for a number of our friends, though, with bereavements, redundancies or health problems. Our little family bimbling along happily in the midst of this seems quite unfair, but a lot of time was spent with others and hopefully helping to support them.

March arrived almost before I realised it and life has been so busy since then. Almost too busy to be honest, everything went a bit bananas as soon as we heard the date our kitchen was going to be redone. Our oven and dishwasher both broke before Christmas, so we decided to bite the bullet and get a completely new kitchen rather than spending a not inconsiderable amount of money getting new appliances replaced in a kitchen that was falling apart in places and was not to our taste decoratively.

We’d done all the decision making and ordered the cabinets and appliances quite a while ago. Then we went into the waiting phase before hearing when they could come to fit it. Of course it did not happen in our relatively quiet time in February or the first half of March. Instead we found two weeks before that it was all starting at the beginning of April. This was great as we were so ready to get it fitted and have a working kitchen again. It did mean, though, we were racing around a bit ordering things we had selected but couldn’t order until we had a date – like the flooring. We then had to pack everything up whilst trying to work out what was still needed in the interim and setting up a mini kitchen in the dining room. In the midst of all this we went on holiday to Norfolk, which was lovely, but was perhaps not the best timing. Although having a rest elsewhere – with a fully stocked and working kitchen – was wonderful.

When we’d finally had a few late nights trying to carry heavy furniture about and not wake up the toddler who sometimes gets disturbed if we sneeze too loudly, the kitchen fitters arrived and it all started to disappear and be replaced with dust, dust everywhere.

As it was so noisy at home on my non-work days, F and I roamed the countryside for a week or so in search of car naps, lunch and toddler friendly activities and parks. In a way this was fun – and we discovered an amazing park complex really near us which is always a winner – but it was still so nice to get back to normal after Easter with a morning pottering out to park, shops and Library and no need of the car.

Easter was spent by the sea at the family railway carriage in Kent, we were so glad this was arranged as we were midway through the kitchen floor being fitted so we had no oven, washing machine or fridge as they needed to fit the floor underneath where they’d all go. Having to go out every day at Easter when everything’s so crowded wouldn’t have been as fun as our weekday adventures either, so all in all another welcome escape.

The kitchen is now so nearly finished. There is just some plastering to get rid of two holes in the wall and some rough concrete for it to be completely finished. We’re then planning to paint the whole thing as some rather exciting yellow paint was revealed where we changed the layout of the cupboards in the utility room. We are so pleased with it though, having a working oven (and quite a fancy oven at that!) feels like the height of luxury. Let alone the dishwasher which is genuinely magic: press a button and no need to spend ages washing up – literally getting more minutes in the day. Just as importantly, it now looks wonderful and much more us, all the fun accessorising can now start!

In the midst of all this, F turned one and a half. It is slightly blowing my mind that she is now nearer to two than one. She’s walking further and further and is properly talking which is just amazing, as you never know what new word she will have learnt next. No swear words yet thankfully – ‘booooob’ is probably the most embarrassing. If I ever have another child I definitely need to refer to milk instead!

Will’s most proud we’re already on five types of birds (‘duck’ – for ducks, geese and gulls – ‘owl’, ‘peacock’, ‘penguin’, and ‘bird’ for everything else). Her interests are almost like a mini me of her Daddy at the moment which makes me think genes have more to answer for than we suspect. Her favourite toys are balls – ‘ball?’ is a constant refrain and she’s already disappointed at my lack of skill at football. She is also obsessed with birds, moths and bees. When Will’s out entomologising she copies him (so cute) although I’ve now got two people who stop and stare at bushes looking for bees. I’m sure some of this is nurture, but she spent twenty minutes clutching a moth that Will caught the other morning (no moths harmed, it was in a pot), which makes me think there may be some innate interest there as well.

April also saw me leave F for the first time overnight – I went on a hen party to Brighton – I completely forgot to mention that in my outline of our lives during the last couple of months above, usually this would be a big event, but it kind of got lost in the general hecticness. It was a mixed success I would say. In a way I’m glad I tried it, but she did scream a lot apparently, as she will only really accept me at night, and woke up very confused after going to sleep fine. I really enjoyed the hen weekend (an actual cocktail!), but I’m not going to rush to leave her again anytime soon I don’t think.

After all this excitement this month is turning out to be slightly more relaxed. We have got a wedding which we’re away for (we’re glamping – finger cross weather!), and a Christening , but also have some much needed free weekends which seem just as sweet after hurtling around the country so much in April.

The other Natural History Museum: #take12trips February

Did you know there are two Natural History museums in the UK? There is the famous, South Kensington one, but there is another outpost of this most famous of child-friendly of museums in a small Hertfordshire town. The Natural History Museum at Tring is less famous than its larger sister in London, but we still thoroughly enjoyed a day out there on a rainy Saturday.

Disclaimer from the off: if you’re not keen on taxidermy and natural history specimens, this is probably not for you. I’m really not keen on anything stuffed  just for decoration, but it feels completely different to me if it’s for a scientific purpose.

The collection at Tring came about in the 19th century when a member of the hugely rich Rothschild family, Walter, decided to build a natural history museum as a child – as you do – and was given the land and money to do just that on his 21st birthday. He built up one of the largest private natural history collections in the world, which was then gifted to the nation and is now part of the Natural History Museum. On a side note, he also taught zebras to pull his carriage.

The building where he founded his museum is still open to the public. It is simply the best day out if you’re one and are obsessed with animals, as Felicity has been pretty much since we knew she could be interested in anything. We first discovered her love of stuffed animals in the Castle Museum and Gallery in Norwich last year, so thought Tring might be a hit. I’m not sure we have ever seen her more excited at being able to get nose to nose with a polar bear though. She was literally running around shrieking with happiness at all the different exhibits (apologies to anyone visiting on the same day we did!)

The museum is free to enter and is reasonably small, spread over four floors. It still feels very Victorian and the specimen drawers look like they are the originals from Walter Rothschild’s day. Unlike the London museum there are no dinosaurs, but being able to stroke a stuffed badger more than made up for that in Felicity’s eyes!

There is a cafe within the building but it is tiny and doesn’t have the widest choice so we walked to Tring High Street, which is a couple of minutes away and had lunch there instead. The cake did look good in the museum cafe though! If you wanted to bring a picnic there are lots of places to eat outside, but as you can see from the rain sodden butterfly sundial, it really wasn’t eating outside weather when we visited.

Very helpfully there’s also a free cloakroom where you can leave buggies and cloaks. We caused enough chaos with out toddler running underfoot to go and gesticulate at the latest exciting specimen she’d spotted without blocking people with the buggy as well!

I would thoroughly recommend it as a slightly quirky museum if you’re ever near Tring. We will definitely be visiting again. I am loving doing the #take12trips challenge from Need Another Holiday as it encourages me to discover some local places I’ve never explored.